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The Immutable Reality
For every shared reality that constantly transforms, there exists another—one that is immutable.
The Immutable Reality is a futuristic novella set in Cape Town, South Africa, finalist for the Coerência Literature Prize and independently published by Villa-Lobos Press.
With a heavy atmosphere that evokes a wintry dystopia, Dêner B. Lopes explores the concepts of parallel realities, time travel, and immersion in an established Metaverse where much of the population spends their free time in an open-world game known as Terra.
Through a helmet and sound waves, players are transported to the virtual world, embodying the reality of their avatars.
"Terra is our entertainment. Its TV and radio programs are funnier, and its social networks and smartphones are addictive for those who enjoy a classic-tech style. The game follows a time-travel-without-time-travel approach, limiting itself only to events that actually happened on Earth—a faithful representation of the past..."
Ned lives with his mother Mia in the present (the 24th century) and alone in Terra in the year 2019, inhabiting his avatar Edgar. Despite Edgar's simple life as a young mall worker, he faces his own dilemmas and has been secretly writing a book.
" (...) a spark ignited in my what if I wrote the truth as fiction for this false but well-constructed reality I found myself in?... "
One quiet evening, yearning to experience his primary world, Ned decides to wander aimlessly through the streets and runs into Zifa, a school classmate.
"He looks at me for a few seconds, perhaps avoiding a goodbye, hesitates for the same amount of time, and finally says 'I'm going to Te'-Cave, to a friend's party. They even let me bring someone and...' He smiled without emotion. 'I didn't want to go alone.'
My first reaction is to thank him and decline the invitation, but Zifa insists in an almost personal way. Without knowing exactly why, I change my mind and get into the Bombardier, which has the other front seat vacant.
Te'-Cave is an underground neighborhood with an entrance at an almost perfect roundabout to the west, followed by a large, extensive straight tunnel in constant decline. It's not a dead end—its construction began below the Great Mountain, and its other extremity ends somewhere in the Silvermine Reservoir (a large lake in the middle of the mountainous and flat formation). They say it's a lower part of the city, which lives up to its dirty, perverted, underworld (...)"
During the party at the nightclub, a shocking face-to-face encounter with his own avatar will shatter all his physical and psychological foundations and forever alter the destiny of his reality.
"My eyes lock onto his back, and moments later I return them to normal, certain.
That one there is Edgar."
What if every reality surrounding you were nothing but a game? A simulation created by futuristic technology so advanced it could create a world within another world?
What if, through a helmet, you could close your eyes in the present and open them in the past, in another time and reality, living a completely different life?
Discover a new world.
Everything and nothing.
Welcome to Terra.
Welcome to your new reality.
From now, Forever.
The Immutable Reality is a futuristic novella set in Cape Town, South Africa, finalist for the Coerência Literature Prize and independently published by Villa-Lobos Press.
With a heavy atmosphere that evokes a wintry dystopia, Dêner B. Lopes explores the concepts of parallel realities, time travel, and immersion in an established Metaverse where much of the population spends their free time in an open-world game known as Terra.
Through a helmet and sound waves, players are transported to the virtual world, embodying the reality of their avatars.
"Terra is our entertainment. Its TV and radio programs are funnier, and its social networks and smartphones are addictive for those who enjoy a classic-tech style. The game follows a time-travel-without-time-travel approach, limiting itself only to events that actually happened on Earth—a faithful representation of the past..."
Ned lives with his mother Mia in the present (the 24th century) and alone in Terra in the year 2019, inhabiting his avatar Edgar. Despite Edgar's simple life as a young mall worker, he faces his own dilemmas and has been secretly writing a book.
" (...) a spark ignited in my what if I wrote the truth as fiction for this false but well-constructed reality I found myself in?... "
One quiet evening, yearning to experience his primary world, Ned decides to wander aimlessly through the streets and runs into Zifa, a school classmate.
"He looks at me for a few seconds, perhaps avoiding a goodbye, hesitates for the same amount of time, and finally says 'I'm going to Te'-Cave, to a friend's party. They even let me bring someone and...' He smiled without emotion. 'I didn't want to go alone.'
My first reaction is to thank him and decline the invitation, but Zifa insists in an almost personal way. Without knowing exactly why, I change my mind and get into the Bombardier, which has the other front seat vacant.
Te'-Cave is an underground neighborhood with an entrance at an almost perfect roundabout to the west, followed by a large, extensive straight tunnel in constant decline. It's not a dead end—its construction began below the Great Mountain, and its other extremity ends somewhere in the Silvermine Reservoir (a large lake in the middle of the mountainous and flat formation). They say it's a lower part of the city, which lives up to its dirty, perverted, underworld (...)"
During the party at the nightclub, a shocking face-to-face encounter with his own avatar will shatter all his physical and psychological foundations and forever alter the destiny of his reality.
"My eyes lock onto his back, and moments later I return them to normal, certain.
That one there is Edgar."
What if every reality surrounding you were nothing but a game? A simulation created by futuristic technology so advanced it could create a world within another world?
What if, through a helmet, you could close your eyes in the present and open them in the past, in another time and reality, living a completely different life?
Discover a new world.
Everything and nothing.
Welcome to Terra.
Welcome to your new reality.
From now, Forever.
125 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 21, 2026
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